Alfred, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha
Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha from 1893 to 1900 (1844–1900)
Alfred (Alfred Ernest Albert; 6 August 1844 – 30 July 1900) was sovereign Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha from 22 August 1893 until his death in 1900. He was the second son and fourth child of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert. He was known as the Duke of Edinburgh from 1866 until he succeeded his paternal uncle Ernest II as the reigning Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha in the German Empire.
Early life
Alfred was born at 7:50 am on 6 August 1844 at Windsor Castle to the reigning British monarch, Queen Victoria, and her husband, Prince Albert.
Nicknamed Affie, he was second in the line of succession to the British throne behind his elder brother, Albert Edward, Prince of Wales.
Alfred was baptised on 6 September by William Howley, Archbishop of Canterbury, in the Private Chapel at Windsor Castle. His godparents were his mother's first cousin, Prince George of Cambridge (represented by his father, the Duke of Cambridge); his paternal aunt (by marriage), the Duchess of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha (represented by Alfred's maternal grandmother, the Duchess of Kent and Strathearn); and his maternal uncle, the 3rd Prince of Leiningen (represented by the Duke of Wellington).
Alfred remained second in line to the British throne from his birth until January 1864, when his elder brother Albert Edward and sister-in-law Alexandra had their first child, Prince Albert Victor. Alfred became third in line to the throne and, as Albert Edward and Alexandra continued to have children, Alfred was further demoted in the order of succession.
Entering the Royal Navy
In 1856, when he reached age 12, it was decided that Alfred, in accordance with his own wishes, should enter the Royal Navy.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Alfred, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha” is duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha from 1893 to 1900 (1844–1900). The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Alfred, Duke and Saxe-Coburg, not as a finished interpretation.
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The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 1, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q158143. The first chronological checks are 1844, 1900, 1893 and 1866.
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This entry incorporates text from “Alfred, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.